Wranglers Playoff Game Day: A chance to eliminate the competition
1 year ago
After two overtime wins at home, the Wranglers are hitting the road to continue game three of their best of five series against the Abbotsford Canucks. This is the first potential elimination game of the series and with the Canucks’ collective back against the wall, the Wranglers could have their sights set on the Pacific Division final come late Wednesday night.
Projected lineups
Calgary
Jakob Pelletier – Ben Jones – Matthew Phillips
Dryden Hunt – Connor Zary – Walker Duehr
Brett Sutter – Clark Bishop – Kevin Rooney
Cole Schwindt – Mitch McLain – Adam Klapka
Ilya Solovyov – Nick DeSimone
Jeremie Poirier – Colton Poolman
Kristians Rubins – Nicolas Meloche
Dustin Wolf
Oscar Dansk (backup)
Abbotsford
Tristen Nielsen – Justin Dowling – Linus Karlsson
Nils Hoglander – Max Sasson – Kyle Rau
Arshdeep Bains – John Stevens – Danila Klimovich
Matt Alfaro – Chase Wouters – Marc Gatcomb
Christian Wolanin – Zach Giuttari
Jett Woo – Filip Johansson
Jack Rathbone – Alex Kannok Leipert
Arturs Silovs
Spencer Martin
Post-season leaders
Calgary
Nick DeSimone – 2GP, 4A
Dryden Hunt – 2GP, 2G
Clark Bishop – 2GP, 1G, 1A
Abbotsford
Nils Hoglander – 4GP, 2G, 2A
Arshdeep Bains – 4GP, 3G, 1A
Justin Dowling – 4GP, 3A
Notes and expectations
The Wranglers and Canucks have been playing a close series so far. Both games could have gone either way and with the Canucks now having home ice on their side, that extra push could help them generate some fight in this series. However, will that be enough to win three straight? Some things would have to go very good for the Canucks and very bad for the Wranglers to drop the next three this week.
For now, it just starts with one. Calgary’s going to want to get this series done in as little games as possible and with that being said, it is probably in their best interest to try and keep this game in regulation. Last game Matthew Phillips and Jakob Pelletier both ended up down on the same play and stuff like that just can’t be risked if you don’t need the extra games. They both returned to the game and hopefully a few days off from games has done them some good.
Speaking of Pelletier and Phillips, these two have been the overtime heroes in both of their last games. These are their only goals between them so while they were timely goals and we are only two games into the postseason, eyes are going to start looking their way for some production in regulation to help this team pull ahead and dominate in the way they did in the regular season.
The Canucks have seemed to target these two players as a competitive strategy in this series. Jett Woo, in particular, has quickly turned into Matthew Phillips’ worst enemy. Phillips was ejected early in game one due to a match-spearing call on Woo and when he returned to the lineup in game two, these two were at each other’s throats. Phillips did finish the year narrowly missing the league scoring title so it makes sense as to why he would be getting the extra attention from his opponents.
These teams play an emotional style of hockey against each other that has had their fair share of post-whistle pleasantries. Game three is going to be a grind for both sides and the Wranglers need to hit that next level to put this team away before they can get some momentum back in the series. This possible elimination game is set to start on Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m. MT. You can find streams on AHL.tv for a fee and multiple FlamesNation contributors will have updates on Twitter.
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